


Trust exercise

by JauntyHako



Series: Post Season 5 AU [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Also deep seated emotionally scarring trust issues, Atlantis having its own memes, Atlantis shenanigans, Gen, John being a worried motherhen, Mosquitos being evil, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 03:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7388647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JauntyHako/pseuds/JauntyHako
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new program implemented by Dr McKay is supposed to keep Atlantis safe from wraith infiltrators. An error in the coding prevents the program from differentiating between enemy wraith and Todd, with predictable results.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trust exercise

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy :)

"Colonel Sheppard, will you stop your pacing? You're driving me insane."

John stopped in his tracks. He hadn't even realised he was doing it, marching up and down the conference room like a panther in a cage. Everyone else had realised. Beckett looked as if he was ready to snap his pen in half.

"Sorry." he said, gesturing vaguely and ending up with his hand on his neck, rubbing it in embarrassment. "It's just. Todd's never late. What if something has happened?"

"Like what?" Rodney asked, multitasking as usual by bringing his work along to the debriefing and thus, until now, blissfully ignorant of John's nervous habits. "You think the ten thousand year old space vampire too cunning for his own good got lost in the woods picking daffodils?"

" _Or_ it could have been Genii, other wraith, giant dinosaurs. Take your pick."

"I'm with Dr McKay on this one." Woolsey said. "Todd is very much capable of looking after himself. He's been overdue for all but" He checked his watch. "Three minutes. I think we can afford to-"

"Offworld gate activation! It's Dr Karen's IDC."

"Finally!"

John was down in the gateroom just as Dr Karen, the biologist accompanying Todd on this mission, walked through, superficially unhurt but distressed.

"Where's the jumper?" John asked, already fearing the worst.

"We need a technical team on the planet." she said. "We've … run into a minor problem."

It took him a while to gather that what he initially interpreted as distress was in fact an effort to muffle laughter.

 

 

John had always been good at bluffing and right now his pokerface didn't betray anything. Rodney, who frequently lost at poker, had to lean against the inert jumper to support himself.

"This isn't funny, Rodney." John said, although his neutral facade began cracking. He had to force himself to keep from smiling.

"Are you kidding me? This is the funniest thing I've seen all week. Can we get this on the big screen back on Atlantis? Maybe invite some people. Have popcorn. Beer. Watch Todd being flung into a tree by a petulant jumper."

The footage from Dr Karen's body cam was admittedly worth its weight in ZPM's. It showed Todd between her and Dr Nguyen entering the jumper to make their way home. Or, attempting to enter at least. The moment Todd stepped on the ramp a shockwave threw him backwards and right into a pine tree at least fourty feet above ground, turning the usually so graceful wraith into a cat look-a-like clinging to the main branch while slowly losing his grip. A few seconds went by and then about two hundred pounds of black clad wraith fell out of the tree like a pine cone.

It was funnier knowing that the only thing hurt was Todd's pride and John did his best not to injure it any further. Rodney didn't have reservations in that regard.

"Did you see the part where I think he's _hissing_ at the jumper. I mean, Dr Beckett theorised that as pack predators relying on stealth wraith could have characteristics reminiscent of cats but I didn't think he'd _hiss_ at an inanimate object."

Todd glowered from where he sat on a stone a few feet away from the jumper which had so far resisted their efforts of lowering the shield.

"I would like to remind you that you yourself have on numerous occasions let your anger out on various machinery. On my part it was simply a natural reflex while your lack of self-control shows-"

"Sure, although I generally manage to use my grown-up words, whereas you-"  
"Alright, kids, don't be mean now." John said, knowing if he didn't interrupt this soon he'd have to listen to Todd and Rodney bicker until they reached Atlantis, which, seeing as the jumper was currently inoperable, might take a while.

"Any idea what caused this?" he asked Rodney who returned his attention to the datapad.

"I can make a few educated guesses."

Todd was faster.

"The upgraded Lantean systems likely detected a wraith approaching and activated countermeasures."

Rodney's face said clear as day he hadn't thought of that.

"Well, yeah, that could be, but-"

"I thought we'd taken care of that problem. Rodney programmed in an exception to the protocols. Your subcutaneous transmitter should tell the jumper you're one of the nice wraith who are allowed to fly."

"Well, obviously the jumper didn't get the message." Rodney said. "Maybe it's just an issue with one of the scripts. We still haven't gone through all of them. I'll have to take a look once we're back in Atlantis. For now, I think Todd should walk back. The jumper should automatically disengage security measures once it no longer senses a wraith presence on the planet."

"Which was my suggestion when the incident first happened." Todd said, impatient and more than a little dour. John supposed he'd be in a bad mood, too, if he was essentially locked out of his own car and also a hot contestant for America's Funniest Homevideos.

"I'll go with you. Rodney can fly the jumper back once he's finished."

Todd inclined his head which in wraith body language meant "Thank you for keeping me company on the three hour trek back to the gate through dense vegetation filled with mosquitos that have a taste for both human and wraith blood."

John could read him like that.

 

 

They got back covered in insect bites, both trying and largely failing to inconspicuously scratch themselves. Dr Beckett assured them the bites were annoying but not dangerous and advised them to "stop picking at it, for God's sake, you're no toddlers".

Suffice to say the moment they got out of Carson's view they scratched with abandon.

"I should have asked Dr Karen what she did to keep those bugs off. She didn't have a single bite on her."

"It wouldn't have helped." Todd said, swaying his hips as if he tried to seduce the houseplant down the corridor instead of trying to deal with an unreachable spot at his lower back. "This species of insect is related to one my Hive has encountered on our travels. We took female worshippers on the height of their power with us. The insects avoided us due to the females scent. I assume Dr Karen was at the height of hers and was thus unbothered."

"Height of their power? What does that mean?"

Todd tilted his head but John wasn't fooled. He subtly rubbed the collar of his jacket against his neck to alleviate another itch.

"The apex of their cycle. When a female bleeds to signify her influence over both life and death, her power to take or give it at her leisure. Does your culture not know of this?"

It took John embarrassingly long to figure out what Todd meant. Then he blushed viciously, which at least distracted him from his body itching all over.

"Oh! Like periods. Yeah, no, we know. It's just, uh, we don't really talk about it. Much. Or at all, really. It's a girl's thing."

This time the sound Todd made was one of genuine befuddlement.

"Curious." he said simply and left it at that.

 

 

Most of the mosquito bites had healed over night, although John still caught Todd shifting in his seat every now and then at their weekly briefing. Teyla graced them both with sympathetic glances, while Rodney couldn't keep his grin entirely to himself. The video dubbed "Jumper 1, Todd 0" had made its round on Atlantis and the _Hammond_ , which might explain Ronon's unusual high spirits in the company of the wraith. John doubted he'd live that one down anytime soon.

"How are the negotiations with the Latiran's going?" Woolsey asked.

"They are going well. Now that the Genii have cut off supplies to the planet, they are desperate to find a new trading partner. We have been able to negotiate a fair amount of their harvest as well as use of their spaceport in exchange for medical supplies."

"We can use that harvest to stock the _Hammond_." Ronon added, sent instead of Colonel Carter, who oversaw some of the retrofits. "Put less strain on Atlantis' storage."

"I agree." Woolsey said. "Now, I've heard we have some problems regarding the new safety protocols. Dr McKay, your input on this?"

"Apart from that it's hilarious?"

Todd snarled softly and Woolsey made a face.

"Yes, Dr McKay, apart from that."

"My team is working on it. It's probably just a few lines of code contradicting the alterations we made. Nothing to worry about, I've got it covered."  
"If you had it covered." Todd said, putting just that little bit of menace in his voice. "I wouldn't be forced to bother with your faulty programming in the first place."

"Faulty programming? The only thing faulty is your-"

"McKay." John warned and Rodney shut up, if still glaring at Todd. "Are you saying the, uh, thing with the jumper wasn't the only time something like this has happened?"

Todd looked vaguely uncomfortable, doing his version of fidgeting which translated to him looking less like a herculean marble statue carved by H.P. Lovecraft and more like an actual living person.

"Nothing major, I assure you. Doors not opening, the virtual intelligence attempting to deprive a room I was in of oxygen. I was easily able to override the city's commands."

"You call venting a room of air minor?"

"You were messing with my code!"

Both John and Rodney shared a look questioning each other's priorities. It was John who said, deceptively calm: "Buddy, you gotta tell us about stuff like this."

"It was not my intention to keep secrets. I merely didn't think it necessary to bother anyone with something I already dealt with myself."

"I understand that, but-"

Todd snarled again, with teeth showing, a clear sign that to him this conversation was over. He could try, but anything John said would fall on deaf ears.

"Well, in any event, Dr McKay will handle this. I don't think we'll have to worry about this happening again."

 

 

It happened again a few days later, when Todd checking a faulty power line to the western pier got an electric shock that had him still smolder by the time John arrived in the infirmary. The discharge burned a sizable hole into his coat that Todd examined morosely while utterly unconcerned with the burns on his face healing as he spoke.

"I do not need medical attention." Todd said and, from the tone of his voice, not for the first time.

"I just want to make sure you're alright." Keller said. "If you hadn't fed within the last week, that shock would have killed you."

"It did not."

"But it could have."

"Okay, what happened?" John asked before Todd could argue. John had seen the security footage, the spark of light, Todd dropping to the ground while his coat burned, his face charred like coal. No one should have survived that, much less sit on the gurney and complain about the doctor applying some cool salve not ten minutes after it happened. Relief that nothing serious happened slowly loosened the tight knot around his throat that settled there the moment he saw Todd's lifeless body lying on the ground.

"As far as we can tell, it was another attempt of Atlantis to keep a wraith from sabotaging it's systems."

"I thought Rodney took care of that."

"Evidently he didn't." Todd said and John decided to tell Rodney to keep his distance from Todd for a while. At least until they'd gotten him a new coat. That intention went straight out of the window when Rodney came in, eyes glued to the tablet. He sniffed.

"Why does it smell like fried chicken fillets in here?"

Todd growled but Rodney had long stopped being intimidated by him.

"I'm just saying. Makes you kinda hungry, doesn't it? Anyway, we have bigger problems."

"Bigger than food?"

"Much bigger. The program we uploaded to Atlantis main systems to help us keep out wraith infiltrators isn't as … passive as we thought it was. I've started suspecting something when Todd said the most the thing did before was lock some doors, but then it took remote control of a jumper, which requires access to a lot more systems than we thought we'd given it and the complexity of having to reroute power and override the failsafes necessary to deliver a potentially lethal blast of electricity should be way out of its reach-"

"Rodney."

"It's learning, Sheppard. The program is learning."

"Well shut it down."

"That's the problem. I can't."

This time when John and Todd shared a brief glance, the wraith looked mildly concerned. Anyone else would have panicked at the notion of having a semi-sentient artificial intelligence out for their blood, but John wasn't entirely sure Todd could panic even if he wanted to.

"So what do we do?"

"As far as I can tell the system targets him only when it's sure it won't hurt any humans in the process, so for the moment someone should be with Todd at all times. I'll keep trying to shut the program down."

"You have done enough, Dr McKay." Todd said suddenly and rose to his feet. "I will deal with this myself."

"Todd!"

But Todd was already out of the door. John cursed and took up pursuit. "Keep working on shutting that damn thing down!" he called over his shoulder.

 

 

By the time he reached Todd, he was already in his lab, bringing the computers out of standby mode. He ignored every attempt of John's to talk to him, brushed past him as if he wasn't there.

"Todd, listen to me. McKay knows what he's doing and while, yeah, things haven't gone exactly to plan-"  
"Be silent."

Todd made to go past him once more, hindered by the fact that John put himself squarely between Todd and whatever it was he tried to reach.

"No you be silent. I know you want to do something, I get that, I do. It'd drive me crazy if I had to wait and watch someone else pull my ass out of the fire. But you gotta have a little faith in us."

"I had a little. Get out of the way."

"No."

"Sheppard …"

Blaring alarm sirens interrupted any further argument between them. In a split second the windows to the lab locked down. Todd's grabbed his back and shoulder and shoved him through the door. John fell hard and scrambled to his knees just in time to see the doors close, trapping Todd inside.

"Dammit!" Automatically his hand flew to the radio. "McKay! We've got a problem."

 

 

The security cameras showed Todd working on the main terminal and little more. It was the environmental controls that had John pacing again. He kept trying to reach Todd over the radio but either something interfered with communications or the wraith plain ignored him. John had a sinking feeling it was the latter. McKay had similarly locked himself in his lab, working on overriding the anti-wraith AI that threatened to kill the only wraith in this galaxy they really did not want dead.

"Halon gas is being vented into the room even as we speak." Beckett said, frowning at the screen as if his worry alone could solve all of their problems. "Wraith are naturally resistant to most poisons, but the levels in the room are already at 15% and rising. Even Todd has to feel a little dizzy by now. There's no telling how much he can take but if we don't do something, he will die. At this rate the room will be filled with gas in less than thirty minutes and he may well die before that."

John felt like cursing again but bit the words back, said instead: "I'm gonna check on Rodney." and was gone before Woolsey could stop him. The knot around his throat was there again like an old friend that he didn't appreciate visiting to catch up. He swallowed hard, took three steps at a time and almost crash landed at the bottom of the stairs, caught himself just in time to catch a transporter close to Rodney's lab. He should have known Todd was going to try to be selfless. If they had been trapped together, none of this might have happened. Or maybe the program had stopped caring about casualties and would have killed John. Maybe Todd had known or feared that and took the risk of losing his own life to potentially save his. John didn't like where that train of thought took him, at least not right now when he might not get a chance to talk to Todd again. Luckily he heard Rodney before he saw him, arguing with Zelenka.

"We can't! I tried overriding his command codes but I get maybe a minute before he's locked me out again and by then he's already changed the code and I have to start over again."

"The program is a he now?" John asked as he entered, his presence calming the ruffled feathers of the two scientists somewhat.

"We're not talking about the program." Zelenka said.

"It's Todd. He keeps locking me out of the system."

"Why?"

Rodney deigned John with a look as if he was a complete and utter imbecile.

"Why do you think? Because he doesn't want me working on the problem. He thinks he can solve this himself, but he can't. I know this program _and_ Atlantis better than he does but this stubborn, little-"

"Okay, I get it. Have you tried talking to him?"

Zelenka shrugged.

"We tried and communications are working but he's not responding. Frankly, with gas levels as high as they are, we might be able to just wait him out."

"No, we can't do that either." Rodney said, entering his command codes again and cursed when the computer didn't grant him access. "If the concentration's high enough to make him fall unconscious, it's high enough to kill him."

John nodded, pacing again and dragging his fingers through his hair.

"Okay, let me try talk to him again. Are you sure he can hear us?"

"Positive."

"Okay." John braced himself, taking deep breaths so Todd wouldn't hear the near panic seeping out of every syllable.

"Todd. I know you can hear me, so listen to me. McKay's working on this, he can get you out of there, but you gotta let him. Like this you're just sabotaging each other, even you have to see that. Let Rodney do his job."

There was a pause and John stared at the security feed. Todd still worked and Rodney still cursed softly. But there was a shift in the wraith's body language, an indication at least that he could hear John.

"I know you think you're smarter than Rodney, and you know what, you probably are."

"Hey!"

"But this is Rodney's thing. He programmed this and he knows Atlantis better than I do. If anyone can help you, it's him."

No change, and the small environmental feed indicated the halon levels in the room were at 34 percent. A human would be dead by now and John remembered how well Todd could hide weakness. They wouldn't know something was wrong until he dropped dead.

"You know Rodney, you've read the mission reports. He always comes through in the end. Come on, Todd, you gotta learn to trust us. We're all friends here, right? And friends trust each other to save each other's butts. Rodney can handle this. Let him. Please."

John didn't know what more to say. In the few minutes it had taken him to do his little speech the gas levels had risen by another two percent. The knot cut off all his air as if it was him being slowly suffocated by fire suppressant. Even if he knew of some other argument he couldn't have formed the words anymore. Todd still had his back turned to the security feed, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Then his hands left the keyboard and he stepped back at the same moment Rodney let out a cry of joy and went back to work. He rewrote the code so rapidly the lines blurred before John's eyes into one large mass of numbers and letters. The gas levels rose, Rodney muttered under his breath.

Todd swayed on his feet and the knot in John's throat made him gasp for air. He couldn't have lied to Todd. Rodney could handle this. He had to. Todd placed his trust in them because John asked him to. If he died, he'd be responsible …

"Got it!"

The doors opened as Todd fell but the gas levels sunk rapidly. Radio chatter told him Beckett and Keller were already on their way. John stared at the screen, not knowing what to do with himself as the tension released like a rubber band. He had to sit down.

 

 

A brief detour to the infirmary allowed Beckett to tell John that Todd already left. John didn't stick around long either, instead searching for Todd, the reasons for which he'd rather not think about in great detail. He wanted to make sure a member of his team was fine after an ordeal like that. He would have done the same for Teyla and Rodney.

But Todd's presence proved as elusive as the rest of him, showing up nowhere John searched. The gyms were empty and so were the labs. His quarters were equally deserted. At least he could be reasonably certain Todd was still on the base. Unless he hijacked a jumper and flew off without anyone noticing, which he doubted. Even Todd needed a few moments to breathe before he could start scheming again.

Breathe. That was it.

"Hey, control room? Can you scan for life signs and tell me if there's one on the balconies somewhere?"

"What, in this weather?" came the answer.

"Just do it."

"Alright. Huh. We got one by the piers. Pretty far out, too. Must have been walking for a while."

"Got it. Thanks."

John set off in a jog, stopping only by his quarters to get warmer clothes.

 

 

If Todd felt the cold he didn't show it. He stood at the edge of the pier, staring out into the ocean like the spectre of a drowned sailor or the ghost of his wife waiting forever on the shoreline. The analogy to dead people took John by surprise until he came close enough to see that Todd did look like death, veins stark against his skin, eyes sunk deep.

"I don't know if you should be walking around like this." John said, a bit awkwardly.

There was a heart to heart coming and he really sucked at these things. At least Todd gave up on ignoring him. He chuckled softly, a sound that calmed John down more than he'd care to admit. But he didn't look him in the eye, so they weren't out of the emotional woods yet. John came to a rest next to him, uncomfortably aware of how small he was next to the wraith, and followed his gaze out onto the ocean. Ice floes drifted along the surface, some smaller, some larger. In the deafening silence between the two John tried to find patterns in the floes, as if he was watching clouds. One looked a little like a wraith stunner and at that point John gave up, realising nothing would keep him from thinking about Todd, who still hadn't said a word. It seemed like it was up to him and boy, he _really_ sucked at these things.

"Look, what happened back there …" he began and wondered how to finish it. Why had he come here anyway? Something needed to be said, something was left unresolved but he wasn't Teyla who could pick up on someone's mood from thirty yards apart in the dark. "I just wanted to say …" he continued, dragging out every word longer than was strictly necessary, gesturing to make space for the words he couldn't say. "That I appreciate you letting Rodney do this."

Todd said nothing and at that point John gave up on the whole verbal thing. The wraith had it right, with their bared teeth and general unresponsiveness. That was a thing he could get behind. Words were overrated. They watched the ocean some more, the silence thick between them once more. The ball was in Todd's corner but when he finally picked it up, John wished he hadn't.

"Everytime you destroyed one of my Hive ships I lost a family." he said so softly John barely heard him. Before he could even think of something to say to a statement like that, Todd continued: "Your kind can't understand the bonds wraith share among each other. When they died I felt it, every time. And despite never hearing an apology, not once hearing you acknowledge the lives you took, I kept working with you. And every time I resolved not to trust you. I thought if I was just careful enough or smart enough, I could keep my people from dying at your hands. I never was."

"Todd …" John began but he wouldn't let him finish.

"Things have changed, John Sheppard, and I can not tell when they did." He turned to face John for the first time, speaking with an intensity that scared John. "But now when my nightmares show me those closest to me dying, they're not wraith anymore. And I don't know what to do with that."

They held eye contact, Todd searching for something in John's face and John opening his mouth to say something, anything, to a confession like that. Todd wasn't vulnerable, never had been. He was guarded and cunning and always slightly amused by the humans fumbling around him. But not vulnerable. Never that. There was something expected of him here, but John couldn't figure out what. They had reached a point where their relationship took a turn and whatever John said next would determine in what direction they went. The problem was, he didn't say anything. Just stared at Todd who silently begged him to do the impossible, to make this sacrifice of his, and John knew it was a sacrifice to share his most closely guarded emotions, worth something. It had been the same with every friendship he ever had, every shot at family. At some point he had to give something, was ready to, but didn't know how. Just like always he stood and stared and did nothing.

Todd sighed, his shoulders slumped. Whatever he had hoped to find, he didn't get. He turned and left towards the city and John didn't follow.

 

He couldn't shake the feeling he betrayed Todd's trust somehow.

 

 

 


End file.
